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NBA PLAYOFFS ROUND ONE: ROCKETS vs WARRIORS

April 27, 2016

J.B. Bickerstaff

Oakland, California, Game Five

Warriors- 114, Rockets - 81

Q. Some thoughts about after what happened out there?
J.B. BICKERSTAFF: To me this isn't about one game. To me, this is about the opportunity that we've had the entire year. We forced it to come down to this game. We forced it to come down to us being the 8 seed.

For me and for all of us, we hope this was a learning experience. It's important to seize every opportunity you're given. The opportunity of taking full advantage of every situation you're in. These years in the NBA are priceless, and these years in the NBA aren't guaranteed for anybody, so when you're in these moments, you have to take full advantage of these moments, and unfortunately, we didn't do enough of that this year. That puts us in the 8 seed and puts us in a very difficult position to play against the best team in the history of basketball. So for me, that's the bigger picture and we learned from this.

Q. Are you surprised that your team struggled so much against the Warriors without Steph Curry on the court?
J.B. BICKERSTAFF: No, they're a good team. Obviously, Steph is a great player, but that is something that we haven't seen in a long time. Not only is it depth, but it's depth with skills. It's not like they're just bringing guys who are garbage guys, but they're bringing in guys who are very skilled. They've got a bunch of guys who are two-way players, so they're going to be difficult to guard. And they've got a commitment to defense, and they've got a commitment to one another.

So, when Steph goes down, they raised their level of play, because one of their brothers has fallen. That's very unique in this league, this type of common bond and togetherness. You see the fruits of it every single night on the floor. They don't take nights off. And I think it's special, and it's special for all of us to get a chance to watch.

Q. How come we didn't see too much of the young guys, Capela and McDaniels in the third?
J.B. BICKERSTAFF: We went with veteran guys who we believed would get the job done. I think those guys have a long history of doing those things, and Clint's going to play behind Dwight. Simple as that. Dwight's going to play. K.J.'s playing behind Trevor.

Trevor's earned the right to be on the floor. All season long he's been our most dependable guy. Any defensive assignment that we've asked him to play, he's played. So guys like that in these moments you ride them, you give them their opportunity, you give them their just due.

Q. You mentioned kind of a wasted opportunity throughout the season. Is that what or how did that prevent this team from ever kind of developing what it would take to compete in a situation like this?
J.B. BICKERSTAFF: The consistency. You don't become a very good team or a great team if you don't do it every single night and every single day. Riding the roller coaster that we rode this year is not how you find consistency. There were too many ups and downs. So you end up a .500 ballclub because we let opportunities go.

There were games you look back and you should have won. You've had a big lead and you let teams come back and win those games. Those are the opportunities you can't wing it. At the end of the year everybody looks up and you're thinking about the last three games, the last five games, how important they are.

But you don't go back to that game in December where you had a 17-point lead against a sub-.500 club and that team can beat you. Those things add up, and they put the pressure on you at the end of the season. You take care of those things throughout the entire season and at the end of the year you're not in that position and you don't have to worry about those things.

Q. What do you think this team needs next year?
J.B. BICKERSTAFF: That's tough to say right now. I think, obviously, free agency and things like that there is going to be change. But I think what the team needs to do is it needs to find a way to enjoy the common goals, and that's the most important thing. When you watch teams that win, there is an enthusiasm, there is a togetherness, there is a bond there where the winning isn't the only thing that matters. I think that's where you have to start. You start with that foundation and then you build from there.

Q. Dwight played 45 minutes tonight, and with three, four minutes left, you cleared your bench and left him in there. Is that something he wanted to do?
J.B. BICKERSTAFF: He wanted to stay, he wanted to finish, and the respect that I have for Dwight, he didn't want to quit. He didn't want to lay down and bail out of the fight, so he stayed in the fight. He kept fighting and kept battling. The shot wouldn't go for him tonight, but he was all over the place on the glass and he was doing all the things that he could do to continue to fight, and I think that's the image he wanted to leave people with this year.

Q. Do you think the players realize this missed opportunity assuming where you guys were this last season and where you are now? Do you think they realize that as well?
J.B. BICKERSTAFF: Yeah, there's no choice but to realize it. We didn't take or make the game that we expected to make. We didn't. That's the reason I'm sitting here, and that's the reason that we're sitting here because we didn't take the jump that we expected and we didn't live up to our own expectations.

Q. When you analyze the season and the series, do you look at it as your team just disappointed you or do you just say you got beat by the better team in this series?
J.B. BICKERSTAFF: We got beat by the better team. To be disappointed, I would have to think those guys quit, and I don't think our guys ever quit. As hard as things got this year, as hard as things got versus this team we battled back.

We may have lost games. We may have had whatever circumstances that have come about, but they never quit. They kept fighting, they kept battling, they kept pushing. Some nights we got beat by better teams, but the next night we showed up and we fought. So I'm not disappointed in these guys by any means.

Q. How good are the Warriors going forward without Curry? They're obviously not the same without him, but as they've shown the last couple games?
J.B. BICKERSTAFF: They're really good. They're still one of the best two teams in the Western Conference in my opinion. Their depth. I can't think of a team that has as much skill or as many guys that can put the ball in the basket, and as many guys who are two-way players as this team has.

You see tonight they bring in Brandon Rush off the bench, and they jump shoot, they're running plays for him, and he's knocking them down. Mo Speights, you go down the list of those guys on the bench they bring in Finals MVP off the bench, Andre Iguodala, former All-Star, he's made one of the biggest sacrifices that I've seen from a player in a long time, to be in a situation where winning is the most important thing.

So you've got to give their management credit. You've got to give their players credit, because they all came here with a purpose, and you've got to respect that purpose.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

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